


Echoes

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 06:46:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17218931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Boots and David discuss business and leisure.





	Echoes

David was barely halfway through selling the day’s papes when he came across Boots sitting at the pier by the river, dangling his feet into the water. Judging from the other boy’s pile of merchandise, David guessed that Boots wasn’t having much success with the headlines, either. David crouched down near Boots, but still far enough from the river that he wouldn’t get wet.

“What’re you doing?” David asked.

“Seizing the day.” Boots cast David a quick smile, as he echoed the phrase that David had used during the strike. He kicked his feet, so that the water swirled around them. “Carpe diem, right?”

“You know Latin?” David asked, then wondered if he should have. Every single one of the newsies had gaps in their schooling, gaps that weren’t their fault and weren’t David’s place to analyze and question. They also all knew surprising things, and some took offense when David was caught off guard by it.

Boots, however, didn’t take offense. He just turned the question back on David. “Do you?” he asked.

“Yeah.” There wasn’t much else for David to say.

“People don’t talk Latin in their homes,” Boots said. “That’s what I know about it. It’s something you learn when you get a real education. You miss it?”

“Not really,” David said. It wasn’t like he couldn’t still read in Latin if he felt like it. His house was full of books, and he’d hardly opened any of them lately. As for his schooling… David looked over at Boots, and wondered how much he should say. It didn’t seem right to tell a boy who had been homeless for most of his life a bunch of tedious stories about his own troubles at school, or the constant feeling of not fitting in that had plagued him right up until the day he’d joined the newsies.

Boots couldn’t read David’s mind, but he did take notice of the silence. “You wanna put your feet in the water?” He said, patting the place next to him.

“I’m not sure it’s a productive use of time,” David argued. “The papes won’t sell themselves.”

“You still don’t know a lot about selling papes,” Boots observed. “See, right now it’s about four o'clock, and hot out. Nobody wants to walk around who doesn’t gotta. At five, folks’ll start getting out of work, and we’ll hit a rush. I’ve got my shoeshine kit. I’ve got my merchandise. I’m saving it all up for the best time to use it.”

“Jack just runs around screaming if nobody is around to buy things,” David said, with a look of distaste. He’d been screaming all day every day for a long time now, and it made his throat raw.

“We’ve got different strategies, me and Jack,” Boots explained. “Not that I don’t like screaming. Hey, if he doesn’t come to collect you in a couple of minutes, I’ll show you how I do things.”

“No one is going to collect me,” said David, who found he did not like the word.

“Fair enough.” Boots shrugged. It wasn’t really his business if Jack collected David or not. “Stick around if you want.”

“Alright.” David shifted so that he was sitting down fully. He removed his shoes, and then his socks, rolling them into themselves so that they wouldn’t get lost. Then he moved in next to Boots, and splashed his feet in the water.


End file.
